Source: RES4Africa Foundation     Report Date: August 2020

This sense of optimism is also increasingly coming from the business community and investors, both in Africa and internationally. The reasons for this are varied and understandable.In the 2000-2019 period, most African countries experienced rapid economic growth and the continent as a whole averaged about 4.6% growth in gross domestic product (GDP), the second highest in the world3. Social welfare and human development improvements followed, with 11 countries attaining middle – or higher – level of income status, and 17 African countries now having “emerging” or “frontier” economy status. Read Full Report

Source: Financing Climate Futures     Report Date: August 2020

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the lowest energy access rates in the world. Electricity reaches only about half of its people, while clean cooking only one-third; roughly 600 million people lack electricity and 890 million cook with traditional fuels (IEA,2018a). Thirteen countries in SSA have less than 25% access, compared to only one in developing Asia (World Bank, 2018). Economic growth in the region is also relatively low at an estimated an 2.8% percent in 2018, compared to 7.1% in South Asia (IMF,2018). This dramatic lack of energy access stifles economic growth and sustainable development (World Bank, 2017). Read Full Report

Source:     Report Date: August 2020

Africa is characterized by a plethora of trade regimes. Three broad elements characterize the trade regimes on the continent. First, there are preferential trade agreements between individual African countries and countries outside the continent. These include agreements under the general system of preferences (GSP), granting duty-free treatment for least-developed countries, and preferential access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Second, there are regional trade agreements between African countries and regions outside Africa. This category includes the various economic partnership agreements the European Union has negotiated with various African countries and regional groups on the continent. These also call for the partial and gradual liberalization of African markets to EU imports. Third, there is a web of intra-African trade agreements, including eight REAs and four subregional groups (Figure 1). Read Full Report

Source:     Report Date: August 2020

Clean energy is spreading across sub-Saharan Africa, buoyed by policy incentives (Figure 1), donor-backed auction schemes and derisking mechanisms. Overcoming pervasive project risk and a lack of local finance, a number of markets are seeing their first utility-scale solar projects. Yet governments are struggling to afford existing power purchase agreements and will have to make hard choices if they are to find room for renewables. • Investment in renewables is growing fast – 18 countries received more than $10 million in clean energy funding in 2018, after 23 did so in 2017. That compares to a maximum of 12 countries getting that much annually in the prior 10 years. • A large pipeline of PV projects is to be built in markets that have little grid-scale solar. Some 1.2GW is expected to come online in 2021 outside of South Africa, more than twice the amount commissioned in 2018. Read Full Report

Source: AfDB     Report Date: May 2020

The goal of the Fashionomics platform is to enable African women and youth designers to create and grow their businesses. The specific objectives of the platform are four-fold: (i) increase access to markets; (ii) increase access to finance; (iii) provide mentorship and networking opportunities; and (iv) develop the skills of the target group. The platform will, among other things, facilitate access to finance, not only by connecting designers with commercial banks and established investors but also by tapping into alternative financing channels, such as crowdfunding mechanisms, and linking them to angel and venture capital investors. Content will allow organic traffic... Read Full Report